Senior Product Manager

Bristol, Darlington, Leeds, Manchester, Wolverhampton

Job Summary

Here at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), we work on things that make a real difference to people’s lives.

Whether it's through the homes we live in, the work of our local councils, or the communities we’re all part of, our work is at the top of the political agenda. We have ambitious and far-reaching outcomes to achieve this year and, if you’re thinking of joining us, there’s never been a more exciting time.

We have over 3,500 staff who are based in 20 offices across the UK.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Digital Planning Programme within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Our mission is to modernise the planning system through digital transformation, making it more transparent, accessible, and efficient for everyone. We are delivering tangible improvements to support communities across the UK, creating great places to live and work.

This role provides a unique opportunity to influence the use of the Planning Data platform, the data development software and open digital planning. The Senior Product Manager will work with high-performing agile teams across the Planning Data, PropTech, Planning Software, Open Digital Planning and broader Digital Planning Programme, shaping product roadmaps and delivering value for users.

You will be responsible for the vision, product strategy, prioritisation, and overall strategic direction of products and services that form part of the digital strands of the planning transformation. This involves new and complex digital products and services delivered by multiple teams across a distributed local government and private sector environment, with high technical or political risk.

We particularly welcome candidates from an ethnic minority background and other underrepresented groups to apply, as we work to continually improve our ability to represent the places and communities we support through our work.

Job Description

As a Senior Product Manager, you'll:

• lead and motivate multi-disciplinary teams, helping them organise, plan, and prioritise their work, ensuring they deliver products and services that meet user needs
• work with senior stakeholders to influence strategic direction and encourage effective and sustainable prioritisation
• develop an expert understanding of user needs, including technical users, and champion these in the delivery of high-profile, complex MHCLG services
• lead and direct a multidisciplinary delivery team to ensure the right things are prioritised and that senior stakeholders are informed and engaged
• own and develop the vision, product strategy, and backlog of your product or service, linking with other products and services in Digital Planning to identify join-ups, dependencies, and opportunities
• build strong relationships with external partners in the planning and PropTech sectors, leveraging insights to ensure the work of the Digital Planning Programme reflects and responds to market opportunities and challenges.
• develop the team’s horizon, scanning capability through the collection, analysis, and reporting of insights about emerging technologies, trends, and policies within the sector
• work alongside Digital Planning Programme policy teams, crafting planning data evidence and messaging for wider ministerial briefings and submissions
• product ownership: define the roadmap, considering what will deliver value to users while achieving our objectives and key results. Take strategic ownership and develop a long-term vision and objectives. Prioritise your team’s backlog.
• problem and strategic ownership: anticipate problems, leverage insights, and build strong relationships to ensure the squad’s work responds to market opportunities and challenges. Clearly articulate problems and collaborate with others to shape proposals that maximise impact.
  
  

Person specification

We will use the essential criteria below to evaluate you during the recruitment process. Make sure your CV details how you meet the criteria.

As a Senior Product Manager, You’ll Have:

• demonstrable experience and knowledge of using agile methodologies and practices to deliver large-scale digital products, services, or projects
• a successful track record as a Product Management professional
• experience using an iterative and flexible approach to deliver solutions and outcomes that meet user needs
• experience managing and delivering products and services to meet issues and problems that arise from day-to-day operations and through product delivery
• extensive experience establishing relationships and working collaboratively with third parties and outsourced providers or Policy teams to achieve jointly agreed operational goals
• the ability to motivate a team to collectively own an ambitious vision, roadmap, and set of deliverables through leadership and communication
• experience of working within the UK planning system or digital planning
• experience owning finances and budget allocation, experience of the process of securing funding through delivering pitches
• experience of line managing or mentoring
• experience of working within the proptech, land or planning data sector.
  
  

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service
  
  

Alongside your salary of £54,531, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £15,797 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
  
  

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

MHCLG want to bring in a diverse workforce at all levels.

Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise).

Your answers are randomised and chunked up. This means that each assessor views sets of responses to questions for example all candidates’ responses to ‘Seeing the Big Picture’ rather than seeing a candidate’s full application. The science behind this is that recruitment can be subject to ordering and fatigue effects and we want to reduce this as much as possible.

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

When Writing Your Application, Remember:

• The assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially.
• Do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers.
• If talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!)
  
  

CV Declaration

We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called anonymous recruitment.

Please Remove References To Your:

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status
  
  

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors.

In the event of a high volume of applications, we will assess the following Lead Sift question (Experience): Please write 250 words to demonstrate your experience and knowledge of using agile methodologies and practices to deliver large-scale digital products, services, or projects

Experience

At sift, through your CV we will be assessing:

Technical

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following success profiles elements:

Behaviour (Managing a Quality Service, Leadership)

Experience

Strength

The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements:

Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the person specification

Technical: Yes – Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the person specification

Behaviours: (Managing a Quality Service, Leadership)

Strengths: Yes

We Do Not Consider Direct CV Applications – You Must Apply For This Role Via The Application Link On Civil Service Jobs:

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign.

Grade 7 salary

• The salary for this role is £59,946 - £70,011 (London) or £54,531 - £64,641 (National).
• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges.
  
  

Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.

Benefits

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018:

Any move to MHCLG from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.

For further information about the benefits available to MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack.

Geographical Location:

• Manchester
• Bristol
• Leeds
• Wolverhampton
• Darlington*
  
  

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role.

• Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service. This role is based at MHCLG and we will be joined on the campus by:
• HM Treasury
• Department for International Trade
• Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
• Office for National Statistics
• Department for Education
  
  

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack.

Sift and Interview dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 21/04/2025 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall.

Reserve List

In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@communities.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list.

Candidate Pack Information

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information.

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the MHCLG candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules

Internal Fraud Database

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
  
  

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact :

• Name : Digital Data Jobs
• Email : Digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk
  
  

Recruitment team

• Email : digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk